The Sun by Moonlight
by Aeshdan
Summary: Aang is transported into a world where everything he knows is turned on its head, where friends become foes and foes friends.
1. Prologue

Aang's condition was rapidly accelerating. At first it had just been flickers, moments where his control of earth or fire or water would slip for a heartbeat, or his connection to the Avatar State would become occluded. But lately he would lose everything but his airbending for minutes or even hours, the other three elements and the pure energy of the Avatar State as far out of his reach as flying without his bending.

At first, he and Katara had assumed it was some kind of sickness or injury that was blocking a crucial chi point, as Azula's lightning had cut him off from the Avatar State. But after Katara spent hours analyzing every inch of his spiritweb with the Healing Touch, and found all Aang's chi paths as clear and unblocked as they ever were, they had to search for other explanations.

To make matters worse, the war was far from over, despite Ozai's severing. Between issues of colonies, reparations, and other miscellany, the negotiations at Ba Sing Se hadn't been able to achieve anything more than a watchful ceasefire, one that might become war again at the slightest provocation. And if war broke out again, Aang didn't think anything short of annihilation could stop it.

For the past three days, Aang had been seeking to enter the Spirit World, hoping his past lives would have some aid to offer. So far he had been unable to hold himself in the Spirit World long enough to even find his predecessors, much less ask them for help. But this was the Autumnal Equinox, one of four days on which the barriers between the mortal and spiritual realms collapsed. If he was ever going to be able to reach his past lives and heal whatever was wrong with him, it would be today.

Aang sat, cross-legged, in the Circle Of Winds. A circular platform atop the tallest tower of the Southern Air Temple, this had always been considered that temple's best place for meditation. He closed his eyes and slowed his breathing, deliberately stilling the racing of his heart. In and out. In and out. In… and out…

 _He opened his eyes again, and knew that he was in the Spirit World. Below him, above him, all around him, gusts of cloud and glints of wind swirled. The sprits of air surrounded him, taking the forms of ghostly sky bisons and translucent men and women in the garb of the lost Air Nomads._

" _Roku! Kyoshi! Kuruk! Yangchen! I need your help!"_

 _For a few moments nothing happened, and he tried to keep his fear down, lest it weaken the link and cause him to lose his chance. Then, almost as one, they arrived. Kuruk from the South, a crashing wave despositing him on the platform. Roku from the North, dismounting Fang and taking his seat. Kyoshi from the East, earthgliding up the side of the platform. Yangchen from the West, riding a translucent sky bison._

" _You have called," spoke Roshu._

" _And we came," echoed Kyoshi._

" _But it was for naught," said Kuruk._

" _We do not know what has damaged your link to us," finished Yangchen._

 _BUT I DO._

 _This voice Aang had heard only once before. Beneath him, the lion turtle rose up through the temple, a blazing form wrought of green and gold fires. It continued to rise, carrying the five Avatars with it as it surmounted the Circle. Its voice continued, echoing from every direction, as though the elements themselves were given voice._

 _YOU HAVE DONE THIS HARM TO YOURSELF, YOUNG AVATAR. YOUR USE OF ENERGYBENDING TO STOP THE MAD FIRE LORD WAS PRAISEWORTHY, BUT IT CAME AT A COST. WHEN YOU STRIKE A TREE WITH AN AX, IT IS NOT ONLY THE TREE THAT IS HARMED. THE AX TOO IS BLUNTED. IT IS THE SAME WITH ENERGYBENDING. YOU MADE OF YOUR SPIRIT A LEVER TO TWIST THE SPIRIT OF THE FIRELORD, BUT IN SO DOING YOU BENT YOUR OWN SPIRIT AS WELL. THAT PART OF YOU WHICH SHOULD CONNECT YOU TO ALL YOUR PAST LIVES IS TWISTED, AND NO LONGER FITS INTO THE AVATAR SPIRIT AS IT OUGHT. AND EVERY ATTEMPT YOU MAKE TO FORCE THE CONNECTION ONLY TWISTS YOU FURTHER._

 _Aang gathered his courage to voice the question on which all hung. "Can anything be done to fix it? I will need the wisdom of my past lives if I am to navigate the next months, and only fear of the Avatar's full power keeps the world from erupting into war once more."_

 _For a brief moment nothing happened, then the massive voice of the Lion Turtle boomed out from every direction._

 _THERE IS A WAY. ROKU, KYOSHI, KURUK , YANGCHEN, YOU TOGETHER REPRESENT THE FOUR ELEMENTS OF THIS WORLD. WITH YOUR PERMISSION AND COOPERATION, I CAN SET IN MOTION A PROCESS THAT WILL PERMIT YOUR LATEST VESSEL TO REBUILD HIS LINK TO YOU. BUT BE ADVISED, YOUNG AANG, THERE IS PERIL IN THIS PROCESS. IT WILL TAKE TIME, AND ONCE IT IS BEGUN, YOU WILL LOSE ALL THE GIFTS OF YOUR CONNECTION TO YOUR PREVIOUS VESSELS UNITL YOU HAVE REBUILT THE LINKS ARIGHT._

 _The four Avatars in the outer circle glanced at each other, and then nodded. "It's your choice, Aang," said Roku. "If you are willing to attempt this process of The Lion Turtle's, we will provide whatever it needs. If you feel it is too risky, we will attempt what we can to rebuild the connection from this end."_

 _Aang rose to his feet. "I'm willing. If it can restore my connection to the Avatar State in time to stop another war, or end it swiftly, it's worth any risk."_

 _GOOD. ROKU, KYOSHI, KURUK, YANGCHEN, SIMPLY LET MY ENERGIES FLOW THORUGH YOU. I WILL PERFORM THE REST. AVATAR AANG, PREPARE YOURSELF. IN THIS TRIAL, YOU MUST FACE YOUR GREATEST LOVES AND YOUR MOST FEARED FOES, AND ALL WILL NOT BE AS IT SEEMS._

 _Around Aang, the four Avatars rose into bending stances. Emerald fire climbed up their legs, and power suddenly erupted from them. Fire, water, wind, stone, all swirled around Aang in a loop, leaping from Avatar to Avatar. Then the four elements seemed to sink into each other, merging into a single whirling loop of white light. Suddenly, the ring contracted, the braided stream of white power closing in an eyeblink like an enormous horizontal guillotine. Whiteness eclipsed Avatar Aang's world, and he knew no more._


	2. Episode 1: The Boy In The Volcano

"Face it, Zuzu, we're lost."

"We're not lost."

"If you're not lost, then how do we get out of these stupid caves? It's almost dinnertime and I'm hungry."

Crown Prince Zuko of the Fire Nation raised one golden-skinned hand. A tongue of flame blossomed above his palm. He stared at it for a moment, then extinguished the flame and let his hand fall.

"The wind is blowing _that_ way," he said, pointing down the tunnel, "and in here, the winds generally blow inwards, towards the caldera. Especially this low down. So out should be _that_ way," he finished, pointing upwind.

Princess Azula of the Fire Nation rolled her golden eyes, but followed her brother as he trotted through the tunnels bored through the mountains of Ember Island. She had to admit, this day had been the best time she'd had in ages. With the ever-present danger of the Water Nation, neither Zuko nor Azula got much opportunity to just play and be children. The war had forced them to grow up too fast, like it did most children. On top of that, Zuko and Azula were the heirs to the Throne. The chances they got to do something dangerous could be counted on the fingers of one hand. Of course, that would get better in a few years… for a given value of "better". Soon enough, they'd trade stifling protection for horrifying risk and join their father on the field of battle.

Zuko twisted and turned through the tunnels, stopping once or twice more at intersections to test the airflow. Soon, he let out a whoop as he spotted a circle of daylight at the end of the tunnel. With a shout, Zuko burst out into the open air – and nearly ran face-first into a massive globe of translucent obsidian.

"Was that here when we came in?" asked Azula.

"Beats me. This isn't the same tunnel we entered through. The volcano could have spat it out months ago for all… Agni's Fire!" Zuko interrupted himself with a shout of startlement, and both of his dual dao swords flashed into his hands.

"What is it?" asked Azula, her hands already in a bending posture.

"Look! There's someone inside the thing!"

"Do you think it could be a Water Nation agent?" inquired Azula after a closer look revealed a figure suspended within the black glass sphere, glowing arrows inscribed upon his hands and head.

Before Zuko could respond, the figure opened eyes that burned with blue-white fire. A jagged line of white light traced itself across the surface of the globe, and it split in half, a column of argent energy stabbing skywards.  
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Some miles away, a slender wooden ship was skulking through the waters between the Fire Nation islands. The ship's sails were sky-blue, and marked with the silver crescent of the Water Nation. On the ship's deck, a young man with tanned skin, dark brown hair, and cold ice-blue eyes spotted the column of light as it rose into the air.

"Finally! Do you know what this means!"

An old woman with age-grayed hair and the same ice-blue eyes as the young man looked up from a game of Pai Sho. "I won't get to finish my game?"

"No, it means my search is finally at an end!" As the boy spoke, his hand rose to stroke the discolored splotch, like a massive bruise, that surrounded his left eye. "That light could only be one thing. The Avatar is on Ember Island. Helmsman, make for the fleet rendezvous at White Point. We must hurry before he slips away again."

"Sokka…" began the woman.

"No, grandmother. I don't want to hear it. The Avatar _is_ there. I _will_ find him. I _will_ capture him, and drag him up to the North Pole, and I will bring him to Tui and La in chains, _just as I swore I would_."

"There hasn't been a confirmed sighting of an Avatar for over a hundred years. If all the people who've set out to find him couldn't do it, what makes you think you can?"

"I will do it because I have to. Because Yue is counting on me to find the Avatar and complete this accursed oath. I am the Prince of the Southern Water Tribe. I have the powers, the resources, and the wits to find the Avatar, and I have motivation like no other."

The old woman shook her head and returned to the game. "If you say so, Grandson."  
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Back on Ember Island, Zuko and Azula stared at the figure that lay slumped unconscious in the wreckage of the obsidian globe. The boy in the lava couldn't have been more than twelve, younger even than Azula. The searing arrows of light that had decorated his hands and skull had faded to sky-blue tattoos, while his slender frame was shrouded by a robe of ochre fabric. Still embedded in the glass behind him was an enormous six-legged furry beast with an arrow-shaped marking on its head.

"What is he?" inquired Azula.

"Those tattoos don't look quite right for spirit shackles, too simple," replied Zuko. "Thing is, I can't shake the feeling I've seen them before. And the same with the robes. They're not what a spy or infiltrator would wear, nor again what a commando might wear, but I know I've seen that style of dress someplace before."

Their discussion was interrupted as the boy began to stir.  
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Aang slowly swam up into consciousness. He'd been in the Spirit World, the lion turtle had told him that he'd damaged his soul with the energybending, then the other Avatars and the lion turtle had volunteered to help him fix the damage. There'd been a flash of light, and he'd passed out. But something didn't feel right. He was lying not on the smooth stone of the Circle of Winds, but on something jagged and pointy. The air was far too hot and muggy for the Southern Air Temple. Where was he? And more importantly, how had he gotten there?

Slowly, his vision came into focus. In front of him was… Zuko. It had to be Zuko. Messy black hair, sun-gold eyes, the same height and build and facial structure, even the same dual dao swords pointed warily at Aang. But there was one thing that was different. _Zuko had no scar._

"Who are you?" asked Zuko warily.

"Imaangcorse," Aang slurred, trying to get to his feet.

"What did he say, Zuzu?" inquired another voice. A jolt of adrenaline instantly jolted Aang fully awake. Behind that strange scarless Zuko, a second figure was standing. A girl, with glossy black hair and golden eyes and a sharp-edged face. Azula.

On instinct, Aang threw up his hands and unleashed a blast of wind. Azula was knocked sprawling, but before Aang could follow up, Zuko leapt between them, swords blazing with crimson fires.

"STOP!" yelled Zuko. "Leave my sister alone!"

Aang froze. Zuko was defending Azula? In what kind of world did that make sense? And then he remembered the lion turtle's warning.

 _All will not be as it seems_. _Something is going on here. But what?_

As he stared, Aang noticed other things. Azula and Zuko were both younger than they should be. Azula was at most fourteen rather than the sixteen that she should have been. And it was a bit less noticeable in Zuko, but he was barely sixteen, rather than the eighteen that he should have been. But the ultimate clues were their eyes. Zuko's eyes held suspicion, fear, and not a drop of recognition, while Azula's eyes displayed a mix of terror and courage that the Azula Aang had met could never possibly feel. Whoever this Zuko and Azula were, they were not the Zuko and Azula that he knew.

"I'm sorry," Aang blurted, dropping his hands. "I-I thought you were someone else. Someone I used to know."

"So you _attacked_ \- wait a second," Zuko interrupted his own lecture with an air of dawning amazement. "You're an airbender, aren't you? _That's_ where I've seen those tatoos, that style of dress. You're an Air Nomad. How in the depths did you end up in that stone? Did the Water Nation put you there?"

"What?" Aang blurted out. "Water Nation? How would waterbenders be able to put someone in a rock? An iceberg maybe, but a rock?"

It was Zuko's turn to look dumbstruck. Before he could find his balance, Azula spoke up.

" _Everybody_ knows about the Water Nation. What, have you been stuck in that rock for the past century?"

 _Could it be…_ "I think so. What year is it?"

"Uh, the ninety-ninth year since the Air Nomad… genocide…" she trailed off awkwardly.

"Then I guess I have been in that rock for a century. Last I knew, the Air Nomads were a thriving people."

"That explains how you survived the Water Nation attack," Zuko commented.

"Wait, we're going to just believe him? He could be a Water Nation spy!"

"Azula," replied Zuko patiently, "He's an _airbender_. There's only one spirit that grants _that_ ability, and if the Water Nation had managed to shackle Kokyu, we'd know. And there's no way any _real_ airbender would work for the Water Nation."

"WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?"

"Azula, you tell him. You do this story better than I do."

Zuko sheathed his swords, and Azula struck up a pose and began to speak in a surprisingly good storyteller's voice.

"A hundred years ago, the four nations lived together in peace and harmony. The Avatar kept the balance, and we grew prosperous beneath Agni's gaze. Life was good. Then, everything changed when the Water Tribes attacked. None knows what madness had infected them, what twisted mind first dreamt of conquering the world, but when the Avatar died and was reborn into the Air Nomads, they saw their chance. Upon the winter solstice, when the airbenders were gathered in their temples in celebration, the armies of the Water Tribes struck, and in a single night, the airbenders were wiped from the earth. The Avatar did not die, but vanished, and has not been seen since. Ever since that day, the Fire Nation and the Earth Kingdoms have been locked in desperate battle against the Water Nation, and every day we pray that the Avatar may return, that the world may know peace once more."

"That the world may know peace once more," echoed Zuko, blushing when Aang shot him a quizzical look. "That's what you say when someone recites the story."

"Come on, Zuzu," said Azula, dropping out of her storyteller voice. "I'm hungry. Let's head back to the house. Uncle Iroh will need to meet our little Air Nomad here, I suppose. Maybe he'll have something useful to say. What's your name, by the way?"

"I'm Aang…" Aang's introduction was interrupted by Appa lunging to his feet with a snort. "And this is Appa, my flying bison."

"I'm Prince Zuko, and this is my baby sister, Azula." Azula glared at Zuko, who grinned back.

"There's something I don't get, though," persisted Aang as they set off down the mountain. "The Water Tribes I knew _couldn't_ have conquered the world. They weren't powerful enough. How can the Water Tribes be a match for the Fire Nation and the Earth Kingdom working together?"

"That touches on the answer to your other question," replied Zuko with a wince. "Remember how you wanted to know how the Water Nation could have imprisoned someone in a boulder?"

"Yes…" Aang trailed off nervously.

"The Water Tribes may have been mad, but they weren't stupid. Kanok and Hakon knew that they stood no chance against Fire Nation technology and Earth Kingdom numbers. If they were to conquer the world, they would need something to tilt the odds back in their favor. So they studied the relationships between the Spirit World and the mortal realm, uncovering secrets never before discovered. And with their new knowledge, they invented the spirit shackles. These rituals allowed them to forcibly bind spirits to mortal hosts, and compel the enslaved spirits to lend power to their mortal masters. Even Tui and La themselves were enslaved, though thankfully none of the other Great Spirits have been shackled."

"The powers the spirit shackles grant are as varied as the spirits themselves. Only the Great Spirits grant bending abilities, but the lesser shackles can grant everything from unnatural strength to water-breathing to the power to vomit vast amounts of acid."

"A lot of scholars have theorized that the spirit shackles were the reason that the Water Nation attacked the Air Nomads first. In the first place, the Avatar was among the Air Nomads just then, and he would have been the greatest threat to their twisted scheme. And of course, the Air Nomads as a whole had always enjoyed a somewhat closer connection to the Spirit World than the other three nations."

Aang was dumbstruck. He couldn't even imagine such an abomination as Zuko was describing. His own bond to the Avatar Spirit was such a fundamental part of who he was. To…pervert… the bond in such a fashion as Zuko described made his stomach roil. What could have possessed the Water Tribes in this world to cause them to do something like… that?

Something else suddenly occurred to him, something that made his blood run cold once again. If this… mirror-world… had a Zuko and an Azula, then it could also have a Sokka and a Katara. A Sokka and a Katara who would be part of the Water Nation that had murdered the Air Nomads and enslaved the spirits.

Before he could consider _that_ idea any further, a quartet of soldiers in Fire Nation armor rounded a turn just ahead and came to an abrupt halt upon spying Zuko and Azula.

"Your Highnesses," exclaimed one of them, "I'm glad to see you're safe. After that column of light, we were afraid that something had happened to you. Who's that with you?"

"This is Aang, an Air Nomad. He seems to have been imprisoned in the earth since before the war. It was his release that produced that light you saw. We're quite fine, though I thank you for your concern and commend you for your prompt action."

"I'll just signal the other search parties that you're all right, Your Highnesses." And suiting action to word, the soldier produced a trumpet and blew three loud blasts. A series of other blasts responded from the forest in both directions, and the three resumed their trek down through the jungles under military escort.  
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"Zuko! Azula! Come, let's have tea!"

"Thank you, Uncle," said Zuko, pasting a smile on his face. "Look who we found on the mountain, Uncle!" He winced internally. He'd loved and admired his uncle when he was younger. But after Ba Sing Se…

"Ah, a new guest! My dear sir, you simply must try my tea. I do hope you don't adulterate it with a pot's worth of cream and honey like my barbarian of a nephew. Azula's much more refined."

Aang had a surprisingly good Pai Sho face, sitting down to dinner and taking a cup of tea as if tea were the normal response to a random stranger showing up from the distant past. Zuko and Azula followed suit, pasting smiles on their faces and taking tea themselves. Zuko went a bit lighter on the cream and honey than he usually did. Uncle was making sweet-ginger tea, one of the few brews which actually had a flavor Zuko could taste. The dinner itself was one of Zuko's favorites too, spicy chicken-hawk and dense honey-drenched griddlecakes. The two flavors didn't sound like they should go together well, but they did. Zuko noticed that Aang was ignoring the chicken-hawk, just eating the griddlecakes.

As they sipped tea and chewed dinner, Iroh spoke up again. "Do you play Pai Sho, young sir?"

"Well, I know the rules, but I've yet to really master the advanced strategies."

"Still, we must play a round," said Iroh happily. And indeed, Aang and Iroh were seated across a pai sho board from each other shortly after dinner had finished.

Zuko wasn't a Pai Sho master by any means, but you couldn't be Crown Prince of the Fire Nation (or Iroh's nephew), without knowing at least the basics. And he was pretty sure that the game Aang and Iroh were playing made no sense. Oh, everything was legal under the rules of Pai Sho, but the strategy, or lack thereof, baffled him. Judging by the confused looks Aang and Iroh were shooting each other, neither of them was sure what they were doing either.

After the Pai Sho game, Aang found himself in one of the guest rooms. Actually, he was pretty sure it was the same room he'd stayed in when he and the rest of the gang had stayed at this house during Sozin's War, back in Aang's native world. For a moment, homesickness stabbed though him. He'd already lost his world once, when he'd sealed himself in that iceberg. Why did everything have to be taken from him again, just when he was beginning to make a new life for himself? Why did he have to lose Toph? Or Sokka? Or Katara?

Aang closed his eyes and let out a breath. He'd learned this lesson before. He was the Avatar. Others, perhaps, could be allowed to have attachments they would never let go, chains of love or hatred or possession that bound them to the world. The Avatar didn't have such a luxury. Everyone had to have one highest priority, one demand that trumped all others. And his had to be the good of the world. He could still feel love, still know pain, but he had to be ready to let them go. Aang closed his eyes and let the pain flow out of him. With each steady breath he exhaled agony and inhaled serenity.

When he had finally managed to clear his mind sufficiently, he turned his focus to another issue. Each of the four bending arts carried with it a sort of sense. Toph was the extreme example, as her earthbender's sense was far more acute then the norm. But every bender had such a sense. And right now Aang could only sense air. Ever since waking in this inverted world, Aang had noticed that he couldn't feel earth, water, or fire. Even his memories of the three elements beyond his native one were vague and occluded.

 _The Lion Turtle said that I wouldn't be able to use the other elements until I finished with this. Whatever_ this _is. Why am I here? What do I need to do to regain the other elements? And what does regaining my Avatar powers have to do with this… this backwards world?_

Aang's contemplation was interrupted by the crash of alarm bells.


	3. Episode 2: The Avatar Returns

Under the command of Crown Prince Sokka, the Water Nation raiding force shot towards Ember Island in the dark of night. Sokka paced the deck of his ship like a caged wolf, his face twisted into a scowl as his furious gestures lashed the water into a foaming fury. He could feel Tui's anger clawing at his mind as the shackled spirit was forced to grant him bending, and it was only exacerbating his own frustration at having taken so long to gather the fleet. But at least now they were moving. Under his direction, the fleet's waterbenders had called up a roaring current, one that hurled the fleet though the waves like an arrow through the air.

Ahead of them, Sokka could just faintly hear the crash of alarm bells. The Ember Island defenses had spotted them. The next few minutes would be the toughest part of the approach. The island's defenses were formidable, and few spirit powers had the kind of range bending or artillery could produce. In a wash of brilliant light, a dozen firebending constructs, phoenixes and dragons and tiny suns, blossomed above the fleet. They were followed by bolts and bombs, the island's ballistae and catapults unloading into the now spotlighted raiders. The fleet's own defenses swung into action, jets of water hurled skywards to knock incoming bombs out of the air or quench the illuminating firebendings. Here and there bolts of spirit-energy erupted from the mouths or hands of those who held appropriate shackles, vaporizing projectiles in mid-flight. But not all the projectiles were intercepted. Off to one side a ship exploded as a bomb struck it, and two or three ballista bolts struck down raiders off the decks of various craft.

But the raiding force kept on, accepting its losses as the price to get close enough in to strike back. Sokka could feel the Avatar now, or rather Tui could feel it and was passing the sensation on to him. After three years of searching, the Avatar was at last within Sokka's reach.

* * *

While Azula had turned out her lights and tucked herself into bed, she was still quite awake when the alarm bells rang. She threw herself out of bed, shoving her feet into a pair of soft leather shoes. It was but the work of a moment to don her breastplate, and then she was out the door with Zuko just a few steps behind her in breastplate and underwear, dual dao blades clasped naked in his hands.

The two royals dashed down the stairs and passed Uncle Iroh, who was still pottering around the kitchen making tea. Azula felt a brief moment of mingled pity and scorn, and then she and Zuko were out the door and sprinting to the bastion. Specifically placed to defend the royal residence, this emplacement had a perfect view of the stretch of beach where Zuko and Azula had spent many happy hours playing, and where the Water Nation raiders would shortly land.

The bastion officer was not altogether happy to see them.

"Your Highnesses!" he yelled as he spotted them dashing into his fortifications. "What in Agni's Name do you think you're _doing_ here?"

"Our duty," yelled back Azula. "I'm the best bender on the island right now, and Zuzu's no slouch himself. Now out of the way!" She ducked under a gesticulating guard and leapt up into an empty bending embrasure, her arms already spinning to gather lightning even as she skidded to a halt. Before the officer could decide whether or not to have her dragged away for her own protection, there was a tremendous thunderclap as Azula released her bolt, blowing the front half of a raiding ship to splinters.

Ten Royal Guards (six for Zuko and four for Azula) piled into the bastion.

"Your Highnesses, you need to get out of here! We need to get you to safety!" their commander yelled over the boom of Azula releasing another thunderbolt.

"We're needed here!" yelled back Zuko. While Azula gathered energy for a third thunderbolt, Zuko shot down a Water Tribe raider who had been gliding down on enormous leathery wings. "Fire Lords lead from the front, always have!"

There was a clank as the Guard officer clasped his hands to his helmet. "Agni damn it, you're not even of age yet! And even Sozin didn't try and fight a full raiding force with two infantry squads and a quarter of his Guard detachment." He was briefly interrupted by the thunderclap of Azula's third shot, before taking up his thread again. "Now come on!"

"Look out!" yelled one of the Guards, tackling Azula. A moment later a beam of acid-green light cut through the space where they'd been, scouring away a good chunk of the bending embrasure.

"Your Highnesses, it's too dangerous!", insisted the Guard captain, gesturing towards the eroded crenellation. "This has got to be an assassination strike, aimed at you! Now let me get you out of here before they succeed like they did with your mother!"

As if in response, a series of razor-edged water-whips slashed down on the bastion. Jets of fire blasted them to vapor, but one still got through and slashed a ballista in two. Below them there were the noises of feet on sand as the Water Tribe raiders hit the beach, followed only a moment later by the clash of metal on metal as the infantry squad plugging the way up from the little private beach engaged those raiders gifted with speed shackles.

At the reminder of her mother's death, Azula's icy focus shattered. How _dare_ the Guard poke at that inflamed wound? But as fast as it had broken, cold reason was reimposed. He dared because he was right. Their mother had been lost to just such a strike as this, and if he had to drag up that old pain in order to get Zuko and Azula's attention, that was both his right and his duty as their bodyguard. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see that Zuko had had the same realization.

"Fine," she said sullenly.

The Guard that had tackled Azula out of the way of the spirit blast rolled off her, and she sprang to her feet. More waterblades slashed down at the fortification, the Guards blocking them with sprays of flame. Zuko and Azula left the bastion at a sprint, surrounded by red-armored Guards.

* * *

Sokka hit the beach running. Every second would count, it wouldn't be long before Fire Nation reinforcements showed up. Two or three warriors who held shackles granting speed shot past him, sprinting at a blur towards the black-armored Fire Nation soldiers still falling into place to block the path up off the beach. Sokka was furious. This had already cost him more than he'd expected, mostly thanks to that spirits-damned lightning-bender. There was no good way to defend against lightning. Bombs or regular fire could be blocked, but lightning hit too hard and fast to be parried, unless you were already prepared. And to make matters worse, he'd already spotted the red-armored forms of the Royal Firebenders. Why oh why did the Avatar have to show up when the Fire Nation royalty was vacationing on Ember Island?

But of course, this could turn out very well indeed. His primary mission was to capture the Avatar and bring him to the Northern Court in chains, but pruning the Fire Nation royal line would help to restore some of his lost honor in the process.

As he ran, Sokka made a slashing gesture with one hand. The shackling runes tattooed into his arms blazed blue, and another volley of razor-edged waterblades erupted from the ocean and slashed down on the defenders. They blew it to steam with their bending of course, but at least it kept them from raining more fireballs on his men. Just ahead of him one of his men vomited a gout of corrosive acid, drenching multiple Fire Nation soldiers. That broke their line, and his men pushed up the trail, cutting down the last two or three infantrymen as they ran.

Atop the trail, fire blossomed and the first raiders up screamed, even spirit-granted speed not enough to let them evade the questing flames of the fire nation Royal Guards. Sokka gestured again, he and the benders with him, and together they pulled a wave of water out of the ocean. It shot past them even as they pounded up the stairs, and by the time they had reached the top, it had settled into place, a wall between them and the Royal Firebenders. As soon as they reached the upper cliffs, a massed volley of fire slammed into their shield, blowing it to vapor but itself being negated in the process. Or rather, that's what was supposed to happen. And for the most part, it did. Most of the fireballs were quenched by the water shield, but one blast of blue fire punched clean through the wall, and one of Sokka's raiders fell, his face seared to the bone.

But even so, the watershield had done its job. It had cost a lot of energy to summon, but it had absorbed the firebender's volley. Now Sokka's raiders would be able to close to hand-to-hand range, and no matter how good the Royal Guards were, they couldn't stand against warriors whose spirit shackles granted them the strength of ten men or the power to heal mortal wounds or energy blades that could cut through anything.

But just before the two groups could make contact, a jolt of pain from the bruise around Sokka's left eye jolted his attention upwards and to the left. And there, standing on a balcony, looking down on the developing melee with wide gray eyes, was a slender figure in ochre robes. A figure whom Tui instantly identified as…

"The Avatar!" yelled Sokka, his arm already cocking back to let the boomerang fly.

* * *

Aang almost literally couldn't believe his eyes. Seeing the Water Tribe warrriors of this world, clad in shining steel instead of the cloth and leather he remembered, was disconcerting enough. Seeing those raiders sprout wings, vomit acid, and shoot forth beams of destroying light was worse. But the worst moment, the thing that put all the other distortions to shame, was to look into Sokka's eyes, and not see Sokka.

Aang knew that in actual fact this Sokka's eyes were the same color as the eyes of his best friend, but they seemed paler somehow. It was, he supposed, the emotions that made the difference. The eyes of the Sokka Aang had known had been full of life and laughter, warm and sky-blue. This Sokka had nothing behind his eyes but rage and cold determination, and his eyes were as cold and pale as chips of ice.

Sheer instinct knocked Aang to the ground as Sokka's boomerang whizzed past him to clatter against the doorframe. Aang turned the fall into a tumble, coming to his feet again just in time to see Sokka's boomerang, now glowing gold from a series of glyphs inscribed on its surface, levitate off the balcony and fly back through the air to its master's hand.

Aang spun his staff in a circle, summoning a wall of winds to block the waterblades slashing at him. Barely had he turned that volley when Sokka leapt up onto the balcony, his fists encased in gauntlets of ice. Aang tried to dodge, but Sokka was fast. Too fast. Aang had never seen anyone move with that kind of speed and strength. Aang barely dodged two swipes, and then one clipped the side of his head, and the pressure he'd been holding in could be contained no longer. White limned Aang's vision, and his body was no longer his own.

* * *

As Azula dashed away from her vacation home, her brother by her side and her Guards behind her as a sacrificial roadblock, there was a brilliant explosion of white light. She spun around to see what was happening, and her jaw dropped. Aang was floating in the air, surrounded by a bubble of wind, eyes and tattoos blazing white. Even as she watched in awe, he made a gesture and the ground beneath him exploded, sending Guards and Water Nation raiders flying in all directions. Jets of flame shot froth from his hands like striking dragons, roasting the Water Tribe raiders where they sprawled. A couple of the raiders sent waterblades or spirit blasts at him, but he shattered the waterbendings with a gesture, and intercepted the spirit blasts with levitated rocks.

"The Avatar…" she whispered, and felt stirring in her breast something she hadn't felt since her mother died. Hope.

The Water Tribe raiders broke, fleeing back towards their ships, and Azula turned and began to head towards where the Avatar was lowering himself to the earth. She and Aang would have Words.

* * *

Aang wrestled down his nausea. It might not have been him, technically, that had flayed the Water Tribe raiders with fire and earth, but those who had had worked through his body, and the smell was threatening to drive him to vomiting.

"Why didn't you tell us you're the Avatar!?"

Aang glanced up and felt an odd sense of déjà vu. For the first time since the lion turtle had made his offer, Azula looked something like he remembered her looking, her eyes fiery with anger.

"Because… Because I never wanted to be," he replied.

"And why come back now?" Azula screamed. "Where were you when we needed you? Where were you when the Water Tribes forged the spirit shackles? When they spread death and pain over all the world? When they tortured my cousin to death and my uncle to madness?" And in her eyes there shone something Aang had never seen from her: tears.

"Where were you when they killed my mother?" Azula sobbed. And then, to Aang's utter bewilderment, she enfolded him in a hug and began to cry into his robe, her voice muffled but still intelligible. "Why couldn't you save them?"


End file.
